Published
Hurricane season is open. Three things to do this week.
Season started three weeks ago and the quiet part is now. Do these while nothing is in the forecast — none of them can be done in a hurry.
1. Register with your county, again
Florida's special needs registry is run county by county, and registration is neither automatic nor permanent. If you signed up two years ago, verify it. And know what registering does and does not buy you: it flags you for evacuation assistance. It does not guarantee a vehicle at your door on the day.
2. Tell your utility about medically essential equipment
Notifying the power company flags the account. It does not guarantee power or priority restoration, and families are hurt every year by believing it does. Plan as though the flag does nothing: know the true tested runtime of every battery, keep a 12-volt inverter and a full tank of fuel, and ask your DME supplier now what they can deliver ahead of a storm.
3. Build the go-bag before you need it
Two weeks of medication in labelled bottles. Two weeks of formula, bags, syringes, extensions. A backup pump and suction, plus a spare trach or G-tube in the right size and the size below. Chargers and battery banks. Three copies of the one-page emergency sheet. Cash in small bills. And the specific blanket or headphones — sensory regulation is medical care in a shelter, not a comfort.